Misguided Attacks on Al Jazeera

Muzzling Al Jazeera, the state-funded news station that has projected Qatar’s influence throughout the world, was high on the agenda when Saudi Arabia, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Yemen moved to isolate the tiny nation on June 5.

Qatar’s critics accuse the station of supporting Sunni Islamist terrorism and Iranian ambitions. But Saudi Arabia is hardly innocent when it comes to spreading Islamist extremism or supporting terrorist groups.

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Staff members of Al Jazeera in Doha, Qatar, this month.CreditMalak Harb/Associated Press

In reality, by attacking Al Jazeera, the Saudis and their neighbors are trying to eliminate a voice that could lead citizens to question their rulers. Al Jazeera was the prime source of news as the Arab Spring rocked the Middle East in 2011.

That uprising ousted the military-backed autocrat Hosni Mubarak and led to Egypt’s first free election, which brought the Muslim Brotherhood to power. A loose political network founded in Egypt in 1928, the Muslim Brotherhood has renounced violence. The real reason it’s been labeled a terrorist group is that autocratic regimes see it as a populist threat.

A military coup led by the current president, Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, overthrew Egypt’s elected president, the Muslim Brotherhood leader Mohamed Morsi, in 2013, as unrest under increasingly autocratic moves by Mr. Morsi grew. Mr. Sisi’s government has since moved brutally to quash dissent and eviscerate the Brotherhood. In 2015, an Egyptian kangaroo court imprisoned, but later released, three journalists from Al Jazeera’s English network on the grounds that the network’s reporting supported the Muslim Brotherhood.

Now, a drive is on against Al Jazeera and free speech in the region. In late May, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates moved to block the websites of Al Jazeera and other Qatari media outlets. On June 7, Jordan closed Al Jazeera’s Amman bureau and stripped it of its operating license. Saudi Arabia followed suit the next day, closing Al Jazeera’s Riyadh bureau, then ordering tourist hotels to block “all channels from the Al Jazeera Media Network.”

Al Jazeera is hardly a perfect news organization: Critical reporting on Qatar or members of Qatar’s royal family is not tolerated. But much of the rest of its reporting hews to international journalistic standards, provides a unique view on events in the Middle East and serves as a vital news source for millions who live under antidemocratic rule.

Those are reasons enough for the monarchs and dictators attacking Qatar to silence Al Jazeera. And reason enough to condemn their action.